Each week includes a discussion
question/point that our parents and their students are encouraged to wrestle
through together. The second week’s
discussion questions read as follows, “Is
there something your family or friends could do together to love those who
might be considered ‘the least of these?’”
Loving all is a
theme that is often talked about, preached on, and wrestled with in Christian
circles. Despite the time we spend
talking and hearing about it, I wonder how often we actually follow through
with loving everyone. How often do we
look past race, economic differences, and religious backgrounds to truly love
someone who is different than us? How
often do we love those people that society deems invisible or detestable,
outside of the Christmas season? How
often do we really seek to love others in the manner that Jesus instructed us
to in Matthew 25:35-36? Do we really
embrace the idea of “loving all” or is it just something that we like talk
about?
For me personally, this concept of
“love all” began to take shape a few years ago when I was attending a youth
workers convention in the fall. We were
in Nashville, Tennessee for the convention and it was a wonderful time. We were blessed to worship with thousands of
other youth workers from around the world, hear inspiring messages, learn about
how to more effectively reach teenagers, and acquire several “loads” of free
stuff from the various ministries in the exhibit hall. Each night we would go back to our hotel
rooms and shift through the various “treasures” that we had acquired. This was a wonderful feeling that came once
every year and we loved it, however this particular year something different
happened that changed our thinking about loving other people as Jesus did.
Each evening as we would leave our
sessions we would find ourselves walking through the cold to get back to our
hotels, however many of us completely ignored the homeless men/women that were
laying on the heating grates, asking for money, or simply wanting to talk. Many times we would rush off to our hotels
completely oblivious to the immediate needs of the people that we walked by,
over, or around every night. One
particular evening one of the individuals that I was with, stopped us and asked
us to look at a homeless person trying to sleep on a hard metal heating grate
for the evening. They asked us to look
through our bags and see if there was anything that we could do to help this
person. We began to dig through our
bags, ashamed that for several nights we had walked right by this person (or
others like them) without even a second glance.
We found ourselves wrestling with the fact that so many of us had been
worshipping and hearing about God’s love but failing to share it. That night something changed deep in my soul,
causing me to look differently at how I love everyone. I realized that it was not a choice of
whether I wanted to or not but something that God called me to do as a
Christian. God doesn’t call us to act
when it’s convenient, often times it’s not.
He doesn’t tell us to love others only if we feel like it. He didn’t back out when He died on a cross
for me (and you) so I can’t back out on Him.
Sure, loving everyone the way God loves us may cause us to be
uncomfortable or challenged but isn’t that what the life of follower of Christ
should embrace?
So my challenge to you this week is
to think of ways that your family or friends can seek to love others as God
loves you. This may put you in an
uncomfortable or challenging situation where your stomach knots up but think
about the love that Jesus gave us with His death on the cross. Shouldn’t we be willing to do the same for
others because of His love for us?
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